Orleans school designs unveiled

After huddling in conference rooms and sketching designs over the past two days, teams of architects on Tuesday unveiled preliminary plans to build and renovate several new public schools in New Orleans.

Recovery School District officials hope to break ground on the three new schools and two renovated buildings by the end of the year, the first wave of construction before the completion of a larger master plan sometime in 2008.

The renovated and rebuilt schools are scheduled to open in 2009. New construction under the master plan, which will govern the rebuilding of the entire New Orleans public school system, is expected to wrap up in 2010.

"I don't think the city has seen architecture like it's going to see come out of this process," said Chip Verges of the New Orleans-based VergesRome Architects, which is working on Lake Area High School in Gentilly with an Indianapolis firm. "It's going to be a very progressive design."

Lake Area, once a middle school at 6026 Paris Ave., will be demolished and rebuilt, as will L.B. Landry, New Orleans' second-oldest historically black high school, located at 200 L.B. Landry Ave. in Algiers. Lake Area will become an open-admissions high school with a technology focus.

Langston Hughes Elementary, which has been demolished, will be rebuilt at its Trafalgar Street site. Andrew H. Wilson Charter Elementary in the Broadmoor neighborhood will be renovated and expanded at its Gen. Pershing Street home. Fannie C. Williams Elementary, which operates out of modular classrooms at its Dwyer Road campus in eastern New Orleans, also will be renovated.

Architects are following mandates to make the schools more energy-efficient and incorporate elements of "green" construction. Global Green, a national environmental organization, has pledged to donate $1 million to the construction program.

More than just schools

Architects bounced ideas back and forth Monday and Tuesday. They revised drawings and whittled several design options down to one. They took input from community residents who attended the sessions and met with officials including representatives from the Department of Energy and the Recovery School District.

"It's accelerated, and we appreciate it," said LaToya Cantrell, president of the Broadmoor Improvement Association, which joined with Edison Schools, a management company, to open Andrew H. Wilson Charter Elementary School in September. "It makes us feel that we are going to meet the goals anticipated by the state."

Wilson Elementary, temporarily housed at 1111 Milan St., the former home of McDonogh 7, , will move into the renovated Wilson Elementary. Cantrell said the proposed plans for Wilson include a special education wing with classrooms and support centers, a media room and a health clinic.

One goal, officials say, is to turn schools into community centers that residents can use after hours as neighborhoods continue to repopulate. Landry will have a performing arts theater, and its library, media center, and a student-based health clinic could be open to the public as community resources.

"Our goal is to design a school that becomes an integral part of the daily life of the community," said Steve L. Dumez, a principal in Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, a New Orleans firm that has joined with SHW, a Dallas architectural firm specializing in educational facilities, to design the new L. B. Landry High School.

Lake Area High

Lake Area, a one-story building, is planned as a three-story structure with parking spaces on the ground level to keep the parking confined to the school campus and maximize green space, Verges said.

Technology suites -- multipurpose areas that can accommodate different-sized groups and the teaching of several technological disciplines -- will be located in the center of each classroom wing at Lake Area, said Michael Roussel, a principal with VergesRomes Architects. The school will be built so that areas open to the community, such as a proposed drama room, are located off the main lobby, Roussel said.

Educators have long said that up-to-date school buildings foster a healthy learning environment. New Orleans public school officials built three schools earlier this decade but had not built a new school in at least a decade before that. Some buildings are at least a century old and many are crumbling from years of deferred maintenance.

When state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek announced the quick-start construction program in July, he invited community groups to lobby for school locations in their neighborhoods. Groups submitted 18 proposals for 17 sites.

Updated construction and renovation plans are due in about two to three weeks and expected to be finalized by early November. Final drawings are expected to be completed around March.

Darran Simon can be reached at dsimon@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3386.